Feeling the benefit

According to a recent ICM survey, UK employees want benefits that enhance their work-life balance, rather than perks such as gym memberships. So what can employers do to ensure that their benefits package really reflects the needs of their staff?

Staff surveys typically find employees asking for more high-worth benefits such as gym memberships and company cars. But a recent study has found that flexible working conditions are of increasing importance. Photograph: Getty

It's not surprising employers are confused about what benefits they should offer staff. When surveyed, staff typically ask for more pay and more high-worth benefits like better company cars and subsidised gym membership. But this is actually one of the biggest failings of staff surveys: they seldom discover what staff really want. In a 2009 survey for trade journal Human Resources, YouGov found that expensive health screening was asked for by 40% of workers, yet take-up averaged just 8%. It was a similar story for subsidised gyms and other costly perks.

However, a recent ICM poll of 5,000 UK employees, commissioned by the Guardian on behalf of income protection provider Unum, appears to show that in today's uncertain economic climate, employee attitudes have shifted. There appears to be far greater consistency between what staff would like, and what they value most when they already have it. For instance, when asked to rank the benefits they already receive in order of importance, employees chose flexible working and working from home in second and third place respectively (beaten only by pensions). Both were significantly higher in importance than more financially rewarding perks such as shares, gym membership, season ticket loans and company cars.

The results were similar when staff were asked about benefits they don't have, but would like. Working from home came in second (wanted by 22% of workers), with income protection (19%) and flexible working (18%) only a few percentage points behind. Again, they ranked higher than the more traditional monetary perks such as gym membership, share schemes and dental cover.

Phil Booth, director at staffing firm OfficeTeam, explains: "What is clear is that in this period of cost control, staff are moving away from demanding outwardly material benefits, ones that they know are costly, and which really are 'perks', and are making less costly requests, but which can have just as great an impact on their life, such as being able to work flexibly, or to suit their childcare or family commitments." Earlier this year, OfficeTeam's own research found employers are coming round to the idea: of 280 HR directors questioned, 61% had introduced flexible working in the past year.

But it seems employers still have a long way to go before they provide their staff with what they want, especially in small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). "Flexible working is still offered more by large companies [86% have introduced it] compared to SMEs, where just 48% offer it," says Booth. This is despite SMEs being responsible for employing 90% of staff in the UK. Moreover, only one-third of SMEs had introduced working from home.

"I think employers need to catch up with offering what employees want and value most," says Jacqueline Otten, head of flexible consulting at Towers Watson. She thinks firms can be put off offering many of the flexible benefits staff often want because they can be seen as impractical to offer. "Benefits that require some form of integration with payroll systems can be seen as a bit of a hassle, but it's probably more fear than reality." In particular, Otten believes this fear v reality scenario applies to the types of benefits that appeared in the top six in the ICM survey as those most wanted by employees, including life insurance, dental insurance, salary-sacrifice and income protection.

Companies that are in tune with employee needs, however, experience exceptionally positive feedback. When cosmetics company Molton Brown began overhauling its benefits provision in 2008, it included pensions and income protection along with inventive lifestyle benefits such as days off to celebrate milestone birthdays and giving an extra week's holiday in the year staff get married.

The result? As the benefits package was fully integrated and based on employee consultation, a whopping 84% of its staff said that Molton Brown offer a good employee benefits programme.

The message is clear: when a benefits package is designed and implemented well, staff are more likely to get what they want, and be better equipped to face up to the work-life demands of today's fast-moving and economically uncertain world.

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About this project

Work:Life UK is a Guardian project produced in association with income protection provider Unum. In a series of articles we explore issues around work-life balance. We look at what UK employees think of their careers, their finances and their wellbeing. Stress in the workplace, the impact of the recession, and planning for the future are some of the topics discussed. It is our hope that these articles will encourage further debate on work-life issues.

Commissioning editor: Peter CrushSupervising editors for GNM: Pas Paschali (pas.paschali@guardian.co.uk) and Graham Hayday (graham.hayday@guardian.co.uk)Produced for Guardian Brand Partnerships by Seven Plus to a brief agreed with UnumPaid for by Unum. All editorial controlled by the Guardian, except those articles labelled as advertisement featureContact: David Fisher 020-3353 4658

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